The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-06-21
CHE 9ailg 8nlletin,
TUESDAY. JUNE u, 1887.
MAILING The FLAG TO the MAST.

Every town had librrt, pole
th,n, upon which the Union fag
was kept flying, often day and
night. The liDelty.pole at Sand
wich was v,ry lofty, aud was in two
pieces, with snalI cleats or foot
pi, re, nailed on So that /, might lie
United in case Of need. AT the
Top OF the low,r section of the pole,
where it joined the topmast, there
was cross-tree. The rope which
ran up the flag and held 1t in its
place was made fast at the cross
tree.
Zone morning, when the people
of Sandwich get up, they found the
flag that had been flying proudly at
the top of the liberty pole lying in
the dust of the street. 1t had been
nailed down by some copperhead in
the night, and basely dishonored.
1t was busted and run up to the top
again, amid cheers.
"There it flew all day, but next
morning it was again found in the
dust, while a shameful object, no
less revolving than the figure of q
dead cat, hung head downward, had
taken its place at the top of the
pole.
"Then young man of the village,
mere STRIPPING, came summing up
as the crowd gathered in horror and
indignation, with hatchet in his
hand, and picked up the flag from
the ground. He climbed the pole
with the flag wrapped around his
shoulders. Up he went; rested a
moment at the cross-tree, where
everybody expected to see him try
to run down the object at the top,
and run up the flag. But in an in
slant he stated up again, climbing
the swaying topmast until lie reached
the very top.
"Here he lost no time in cutting
loose with blow the object which
hung there, and il came crashing
down. Next he cut loose the rope
itself, and the people wondered
what he WAS ding. They saw pre-
sently, for in u minute he had the
inner edge uf the flag against the
pole, and with nails that lie took
from hi, pocket, he was mailing the
flag to the mast with the back of his
Ratchet. When that work was thor
oughly done, and the flag tapped
again in the breeze, amid the cheers
OF the people below, the boy began
TO descend. And then it was plain
that he had new use of his hatchet,
for, as he came down, he knocked
off, cleat by cleat, the little pieces
upon which his own feet had climbed
the pole. One after another they
fell off, and the blows of the Ratchet
left The pole as smooth and clean as
before these pieces had been tackled
on. Again he rested at the cross
tree, and again began descending,
knocking off every piece as fast as
he left it, and when he jumped upon
the ground, not only was the Union
flag flying proudly at the top Of the
pole, but its removal had been put
beyond human ingenuity and agi-
lily.
''The flag hung there amind the
storms until, long afterward, it had
beaten itself into shreds. And the
people of Sandwich were prouder OF
the tattered flag than they would
have been of any new one that could
have been raised, for it told to them
a story of patriotism and bravery.
''It is not much wonder that the
youth who nailed this flag to the
mast became a trusted and active
citizen in the Western State to which
he afterward removed, and was
named not long ago for one of the
highest official honors in that State.
His modesty regarding the inciden,
is very great, however, and it has
almost faded out of sight. - Bos.
ton Transcript.